Team effort: Six strangers split staggering $32 million lottery prize
Six strangers from Quebec proved that teamwork really does make the dream work after winning a massive lottery prize.
Benoit Laberge, Marie-Josée Roy, Louise Lanthier, Jeanne Bouchard Pharand, Lyne Beaulieu, and Alain Dupuis had a lot to be thankful for heading into the Thanksgiving weekend, nabbing the staggering $32 million Lotto 6/49 Gold Ball jackpot in the October 9 draw.
They all met for the first time to celebrate their big win at the Loto-Québec office.
But how did these lottery players, who don’t know each other, come together to beat the odds?
Each person bought a Formule Groupe ticket, which allows you to purchase one or more shares in a group formed by a retailer. This one was sold in five shares and will be split between the six players, each getting $6.4 million.
They had each bought their tickets at Servi Express Saint-Clet, 350 Chemin de la Cité-des-Jeunes in Saint-Clet.
For putting this dream team together, the retailer will receive a 1% commission of $320,000.
Laberge found out he’d won at the Servi Express Saint-Clet. Both the regular customer and the store attendant were speechless when they saw the amount on the display screen.
Happy tears were shed when the lottery winner told his family about the prize he’d just won. Thanks to the hefty jackpot, Laberge, who works in delivery, plans to retire early, and so does his spouse.
Husband and wife duo Beaulieu and Dupuis had the same idea, but they expedited it, resigning from their jobs after Thanksgiving.
The pair took home the group play ticket’s last available share. They plan to buy a property and travel to Bora Bora with the windfall.
Roy, an avid horseback rider, often stops at the Servi Express Saint-Clet to purchase her lottery tickets on the way to her horseback riding classes.
The lucky winner discovered that Loto-Québec was looking for the Gold Ball Jackpot winners while drinking her morning coffee. Roy went to a retailer and got an attendant to check her ticket.
The young man said, “You’ve won big!”
Lanthier regularly buys Formule Groupe lottery tickets, and it definitely paid off this time around. When she heard that the $32 million jackpot had been won, she headed to a retailer to check her ticket using the self-serve ticket checker. She was stunned when she saw the $6,400,000 amount displayed on-screen.
Last but certainly not least, Bouchard Pharand found out she won after checking her ticket on her tablet.
“I won something!” she gasped. Bouchard Pharand plans to spoil her loved ones and purchase a new car.
The winners are all Montérégie residents, except for Roy, who lives in Montréal.